The Town

We were in a bad situation and Jesus was born to change the situation. We were in debt, lost, dead, orphaned and condemned and yet Jesus came to earth to become our Lord and change the situation. There were reasons why Jesus came and reasons why calling him Lord changes everything. Joy has dawned!

Our culture says that fear and anxiety are as much an inevitable part of the human experience as birth and death and are to be accepted. Yet when the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of a Savior they commanded the men to "fear not". Why? Because Jesus brings the world great joy which crushes fear and anxiety. When we know who is in the manger and we look upon the face of Chri...

Jesus defeated the grave and rose again. We hear the story every Easter. We gather to remember it every Sunday. The women in the text had forgotten the promise of Jesus that he would rise on the third day. That is the reason that they are afraid when they find the stone rolled away. We also forget. Despite the holiday and the church gatherings and the reminders we have in our lives, we forget that...

Oh, the irony. Puny men are trying to pass judgment on the God who judges the world. Men are flocking to bear false witness against the God who commanded not to bear false witness. The chief priest is accusing the God in whose Temple he serves of blasphemy. This is a picture of how blind we can become. Do we get so caught up in religiosity that we can't see God standing right in front of us? It se...

The murder of Jesus was not a just event. His accusers show up in the middle of the night to arrest him. Jesus proposes a wise question: "Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me" (vv. 48-49). These men did not have the courage to arrest Jesus in the day; they waited until no one else wa...

The road to the cross is a difficult one. Sometimes, we can get so caught up with Jesus' divinity that we forget his humanity. In this passage, all the events that have been predicted numerous times are now starting to take place. Jesus knows that his friends are not going to be steadfast in his time of trial. Jesus knows that his friends are going to make bold promises about their loyalty to him...

Every week at Stone's Throw, we break off a piece of bread (trying not to pick the spot that results in you taking half of the loaf for yourself) and dunk it in some grape juice (trying to make sure you aren't the guy whose finger touches the juice, disrupting the holiness of the event for everyone in line). In this passage, we see the introduction of that practice. In the parallel account in Luke...

In this scene, a woman interrupts a dinner party. She breaks an expensive bottle of ointment open and anoints Jesus. A denarii was the average daily wage during Jesus' time period, so 300 denarii is in the neighborhood of the average yearly wage for a Palestinian. We can understand why some disciples are upset that this bottle is being "wasted" on Jesus. Their argument makes sense; imagine how muc...

In theological circles, eschatology is known as "the study of last things." One thing I think we can all agree on is that eschatology can get very, very weird. The study of the end times can get very muddy between some terrifying biblical imagery, some whack-job pastors making gloom and doom predictions, hilariously bad Christian movies and books that are written for entertainment. This next secti...

God is faithful and He has made His church fruitful. He is changing people and saving people. We celebrate what God is doing in our midst and what better way than under a Big Tent! Complete with outdoor worship, a baptismal tank, BBQ, and moon bounces!

Who is the most spiritual person you know? If you asked that question to a Jew in Jesus' day, they probably would have pointed to a scribe or a Pharisee. The most religious people memorized large chunks of the Bible, could pray for an hour out loud and sat in the front of the church. We do the same thing today; our religious hero can school any atheist in apologetics, give tons of money to orphans...

Jesus is a master at knowing how to respond to questions based on who he is talking to. He is a good listener. Sometimes, he chooses to not answer (11:33); elsewhere, he blatantly corrects (12:27). In this situation, he answers directly and encourages a teachable scribe. The question asked in this passage concerns the heart of the Laws of God. The answer is known as the Shema (meaning "listen" fro...

Through his three year ministry, Jesus had made a lot of enemies. In this passage, yet another group is revealed to have quarrels with Jesus' teaching: the Sadducees. They rejected the teaching of resurrection and believed that the soul and body perish at death. However, Jesus has taught multiple times about the resurrection at the final day, and about his own resurrection following his brutal dea...

Jesus' enemies are swarming around him just as he had predicted on three previous occasions. The shadow of the cross is looming large over his ministry. Over the next few sections of Mark, we see the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the scribes all aligning together to oppose Jesus. These groups are not friends with one another, but they are embracing the saying that, "your enemy's ene...

"The characteristic of Jesus that left the most lasting impression on his followers and caused the greatest offense to his opponents was his exousia, his sovereign freedom and magisterial authority." Jesus has walked into the religious institution of the day and challenged the leaders and people directly. He has disrupted hundreds of years of tradition and has claimed to do so by God's authority....

Most of us think of teaching as verbally explaining truths. Sometimes that is the case, but Jesus takes two different tactics to convey truths to those around him. First, in this passage he uses the metaphor of the fig tree. The people of God are called to bear fruit; Jesus rebukes a tree for not bearing fruit and curses it. This is a metaphor for Israel and the temple-- it isn't bearing fruit as...

It is finally here. Jesus has been traveling towards Jerusalem since chapter eight, and now he makes his entrance. The rest of the book (approximately 38% of it) will be dedicated to the final week of the mission. Mark wants us to know where the focus of Jesus' ministry lies. In this section, Jesus rides into town proclaiming his kingship. Riding on a humble donkey is fulfillment of prophecy conce...

In this passage, Jesus is in Jericho, which is about 15-20 miles from Jerusalem. This healing is the last one recorded in this gospel and the final event in Mark before Jesus enters the city; that means in just over a week, Jesus will change the world by his death and resurrection. Additionally, this timing means that that the Jewish holiday of Passover is right around the corner. You can imagine...

Repetition is a way of showing importance. Most likely, the things that you say over and over to your kids are the things you are most zealous about. For the third time, Jesus declares his purpose: to go to Jerusalem and be killed. And this time, he goes into further detail than before; he will be mocked, spit upon, flogged and killed. But he never forgets to leave out the fact that after three da...

We all at some point ask what we must do to inherit eternal life. The big idea is this: we can't. It is only what Jesus has done that grants eternal life. Jesus calls us to place our faith in him and in him alone.

Children are gifts from our Father above and they are also pictures of how we approach him. Jesus loved children. We are likewise called to love children, and not just our own. At Stone's Throw, we value kids because Jesus values them.

Children are gifts from our Father above and they are also pictures of how we approach him. Jesus loved children. We are likewise called to love children, and not just our own. At Stone's Throw, we value kids because Jesus values them.

Our dreams, pursuits, goals, actions, objectives, thoughts, plans, indeed our whole lives, are spent centered on seeking happiness. Jesus tells us that unless we are willing to cut off all things that cause sin, we will not experience true happiness with him forever.

Our natural inclination in all things is to be the best, but the Kingdom of God has no room for those seeking their own glory. Those who would follow Jesus must come humbly, like a little child, because Jesus was the epitome of humility. He became last and was a servant to all. Likewise, we must take up our cross in a similar way and follow him.

"I believe; help my unbelief!" Have you ever felt this way? The answer should be "yes." Fortunately, we can place our weak faith in the one who loves the weak. Jesus' love isn't dependent on our current level of faith, and we err when we make faith itself the object of our faith. It's all about what Jesus has done for us.